In Itanium legal tiff, HP wins over Oracle

Oracle just can't catch a break in any of its courtroom battles lately. Hewlett-Packard has just won a major court ruling in the Itanium case against the hardware giant.

Here are the key points in the ruling handed down by the Superior Court of California this afternoon:

The Settlement and Release Agreement entered into by HP and Oracle in September 2010 required Oracle to continue to offer its product suite on HP’s Itanium-based server platforms and didn't permit Oracle to decide on its own whether to do so or not. That agreement also pertains to any Oracle … Read more

In tit for tat, AMD grabs Apple chip designer

Fast on the heels of Apple nabbing a designer from chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, AMD turned around today and hired an Apple chip architect.

Jim Keller, 53, will join AMD as a corporate vice president and chief architect of AMD's microprocessor cores, reporting to Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster, another former Apple employee.

"Keller will lead AMD's microprocessor core design efforts...with a focus on developing both high-performance and low-power processor cores that will be the foundation of AMD's future products," AMD said in a statement.

Keller had been a director in the platform architecture … Read more

Newest HP ultrabook faces shipment delays

Hewlett-Packard is having a tough time fulfilling orders for its newest high-end ultrabook.

That would be the Envy Spectre XT, a 13-inch, three-pound, sub-0.7-inch-thick laptop sporting a mostly metal design and Intel's newest "Ivy Bridge" processors.

The model, announced in early May, had been expected to ship as early as June 8 but orders have been backlogged.

"HP Envy SpectreXT orders are taking longer to fulfill than HP expected," an HP spokesperson told CNET. "We are contacting all customers who have placed orders to provide updated expected delivery dates."

An order for … Read more

Vizio meets the MacBook: Part 2

Vizio's new ultrabook-style laptops have a kink or two to iron out before they can take on the MacBook.

Last week, I wrote about my experience with Vizio's new ultrathin laptops -- which are just beginning to become widely available -- at the Microsoft store in Los Angeles. After sitting down and using the 14- and 15-inch "Thin+Light" laptops, I was wowed by their displays.

And that's what I focused on, since that's a crucial feature to get right if you take on the MacBook -- particularly now with the Retina MacBook Pro. … Read more

CareZone announces freebie for epilepsy care cases

CareZone, a startup for organizing and sharing personal information, announced a promotion that grants free access to those with a family member with epilepsy.

Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz, who previously led Sun Microsystems, said a partnership with the Epilepsy Foundation will match what CareZone has done with groups dealing with autism and Parkinson's disease.

(For a look at the executive and his views on Oracle, Apple, Amazon, and Intel, check CNET's accompanying Q&A with Schwartz.)

Schwartz hopes CareZone will catch on as a way to let people privately share information such as instructions for babysitters, emergency … Read more

Jonathan Schwartz: Oracle bungled its chance at mobile Java

Instead of leading 30,000 employees at a beleaguered Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz is now leading just a dozen at his new startup, CareZone

But Schwartz remains the same. True to the provocateur culture that helped keep Sun in the headlines despite a relatively small advertising budget, Schwartz clearly relishes holding forth about the trends that will separate the computing industry's winners and losers.

Among some opinions Schwartz shared in a recent interview: that Macs will once again seriously compete with Windows for PC market share, that Oracle lost a chance to innovate rather than just litigate in the … Read more

Apple's buying power relegates Samsung to distant second

Here's another category where Apple and Samsung go head to head: chip buying. And Apple's dominance is expanding rapidly.

Rip off the plastic, metal, and glass on any consumer device, and it's pretty much all chips. And if you're the No. 1 buyer of those chips, as Apple is, that means you hold a lot of sway over global chip manufacturing.

More sway than chip kingpin Samsung (which Apple, ironically, buys lots of chips from).

"It's well known that Apple has already conquered the smartphone and tablet segments -- but behind the scenes the … Read more

Qualcomm quad-core tablet arrives -- for deep pockets

Qualcomm's first quad-core Snapdragon chip has arrived in a tablet -- but only for those with $1,300 burning a hole in their pockets and developers.

The tablet packs an APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 quad-core chip -- one of the most highly-anticipated quad-core ARM processors. Why? Because Qualcomm S4 silicon -- currently dual-core -- can be found in popular mobile devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One S.

The S4 is also slated to appear in the 4G version of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity tablet.

And that means, of course, we can expect the quad-core … Read more

Vizio meets the MacBook

Vizio is the latest to make a run at Apple's MacBook. So far, I like what I see.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company's "Thin + Light" laptops are front and center at the Los Angeles Microsoft store these days.

I counted six Vizio ultrabooks. That's more -- a lot more in most cases -- than any other single vendor in the store.

And the Vizio ultrabook display setup screams Apple. Walk into any Apple store and you'll see display tables full of the newest MacBooks. For instance, the MacBook Pro Retina is currently displayed six … Read more